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You need a Plan B

I remember during a stage in my teen years I was constantly asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

You can sense the dismay when I would reply “An actor!”. The wise old adult would say to that.

“Do you have a Plan B if that doesn’t work out?”

Of course, in my mind it was all going to work out and I will be famous and rich and I would live in a big house.

Now I’m an adult, an old one at that, I understand the wisdom behind those sentiments. We bring things to a full circle and I can now sit here and tell you that if you are going to start vaping you will need a Plan B.

Once you start seeing the benefits of vaping compared to smoking it doesn’t take long to work out that you are on a good thing. You have a bit more money in your pocket, you feel great and you don’t stink like an ashtray.

Your determination and commitment will push you towards the logical point where you need to start planning for contingencies in case something goes wrong with your Mod (Battery), your tank and rarely but worth thinking about, your e-juice.

If you’ve followed the guides in the previous posts you will have a vape starter kit, coils, batteries and some juice and your nicotine*. You’re probably a few days into vaping and you know this is something you can stick to and if you need support and information there are social online groups that are very helpful and local shops if you are lucky like me. In fact, on the whole I have found the Vape Community incredibly helpful, egalitarian and generous.

I think it would be fair to say most of us have fairly regular routines. We’re either mostly at home, in the car or at work. Probably never too far from any one of those. If this is the same for you then a good plan is to work towards ensuring you keep a back-up kit at work, one in the car and one at home. Makes sense right?

Your back up kit can be something cheap and simple and doesn’t have to be a whole new kit. Just a few parts will do or something to buy some time. You’ll know within a couple of days if:

This juice in the tank isn’t lasting: This happens to me as my first tank only had a 2ml capacity. So I started keeping spare juice in the car and some at work. When I realised this issue I pretty soon upgraded to a larger tank. A 4ml tank should do you for an MTL style device but some of the larger plume cloud kits you might have to start carrying some extra juice on you and keeping some at locations you frequent (work & car)…. If that happens to also include your regular pub or social spot. Speak to the owner and ask if you can keep a bottle of juice somewhere cool and dark. You might be surprised!

I burnt a coil: I feel for you…. This happened to me a few times. You first vape kit likely uses factory disposable coils and there is no way of reliably telling how long they will last but the good thing about these coils is that it’s easy to buy a few spare packs. They’re not expensive and there is no reason why you can’t have enough for a couple of months (average about 1 coil a week) worth split at key locations. It’s worth this initial investment as by my reckoning this is the most likely fail scenario.

Tank glass broke: This can happen at any time and any place and can be a bit tricky to plan for but in the car and at work I keep a starter kit fully charged. Would be willing to cab it to either of those locations rather than buy a pack of ciggies. Your kit probably came with a spare glass and if not, keep a spare tank or it’s parts.

At this point, you are probably thinking…whoa! All those spare parts are going to be expensive!!

At a bare minimum for a busy social/working person 2 or 3 pod systems or simple starter kits kept at strategic locations will tide you over till you replace or repair any damaged or failed parts and we’re looking at probably less than $100 above your initial outlay. In the 9 months, I have been vaping I’ve only ever used my Plan B once or twice and I put this down to doing the maths and re-investing the money I saved within the first few weeks of vaping into making sure I reduce the chances of going back to the cigarettes. This is the whole point of this exercise.

For those of use who spend most of the time at home then a smaller Plan B is enough. So again it’s a matter of your lifestyle patterns that will guide you here. The thing is to have a Plan B which doesn’t include buying a packet of tobacco.

If I could turn back the clock my first purchase would have been a decent level starter kit, 2 sets of spare batteries, 2 bottles of juice, 3 packs of spare coils and 2 pod systems…maybe even three pod systems as backups. I skimped out a bit because I had this anxiety and doubted vaping will work for me and finances were a bit tight at the time. I’m such a sceptic! It’s worth budgeting a little more for the initial outlay but it should come around to roughly two weeks of your normal ciggy expenses. You’ll be ahead by the end of the first month…for sure!

As it turned out I had nothing too major to worry about and I may not have needed the Plan B often but I felt very secure in knowing they were there and I ended up giving away some of my Plan B’s to people I have introduced to vaping and replacing them with other Plan B’s. By the end of the first 3 weeks, I was still ahead in money and way ahead in how good I was feeling.

This information is particularly pertinent to those of you who live in remote, regional or rural area and access to shops that sell vape gear are not around nearby and you know no-one else that vapes.

We can’t always rely on others to bail us out so it’s best we look after ourselves especially in our early vaping adventures. If you haven’t read my previous blog entries I’ve been setting you up for making some wiser purchasing decisions for your first vape kit and looking at ways to carry you through the first few weeks.

Plan B might seem excessive and while I have adapted with more experience, I still have Plan B’s…these days they include wire & cotton next to my starter kits so I have more options. We’re here all the way with you so keep on Vaping On and be prepared with a Plan B

That’s all for now…next week I will more likely cover some ideas on coping with stress, cravings & grief.